YANGJU — Chung Duck-young, mayor of Yangju in Gyeonggi Province, welcomed the start of construction on the GTX-C line on the 14th, saying the city will do everything in its power to ensure the project is completed on schedule without further delays.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said the same day that construction on the Great Train eXpress Line C (GTX-C), which had been held up over construction costs, will begin on the 15th. The 86.6-kilometer line will run from Deokjeong Station in Yangju through Uijeongbu, Chang-dong, Cheongnyangni and Samsung in central Seoul before reaching Suwon and Sangnoksu in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.
The project had been delayed by a series of setbacks, including a holdup in signing financing agreements and stalled negotiations over higher construction costs driven by material price increases stemming from global inflation. It cleared the final hurdle to groundbreaking in August with approval from the Private Investment Project Review Committee, following an arbitration ruling by the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board in April.
The line is expected to fundamentally reshape public transportation in Yangju. The trip from Deokjeong Station to southern Seoul's Gangnam area, measured to Samsung Station, currently takes more than 80 minutes but will be cut to around 30 minutes once the line opens.
With sharply improved access to Seoul's central business districts, Yangju will establish itself as a genuine transportation hub for northern Gyeonggi Province and gain a solid foundation for becoming a self-sufficient city by attracting businesses and residents.
"A long-awaited project for Yangju is getting on track, and we expect it to serve as a catalyst for regional development," the mayor said. "We will build a close cooperative system with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and other relevant agencies throughout the construction process."
The GTX-C line, pursued as a build-transfer-operate (BTO) private investment project, is expected to require about 60 months, or five years, of construction from the groundbreaking date. If the schedule holds, the line will open in five years and function as key infrastructure reshaping the transportation landscape of the greater Seoul area.
